


Headache

by spaceyquill



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Maul Lives, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-02 16:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16790629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceyquill/pseuds/spaceyquill
Summary: Leia, once a student under Darth Maul, seeks him out after the destruction of the Death Star.





	Headache

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darlingargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/gifts).



Something about the red, foggy stillness of Dathomir amplified the cooldown whine of Leia’s ship as she ventured out across the not-quite-marshy ground. Tall, bare trees bent around her, looking as much the casualties of some great fight as the droid scraps that lay littered in between; she was walking through a graveyard. Leia cinched the collar of her white traveling jacket against the cold—or whatever it was that was making her shiver.

The rest of the rebellion was waiting for her; she’d couldn’t stay long here. Despite their overwhelming success destroying the Death Star, the rebellion was already on the run looking for a new base of operations, and it wouldn’t do for her to not be among those leading that front. But it would help a great deal if she brought back a new recruit with her.

A faint green tint glowed ahead of her in the fog, running like a trail ever forward, towards that cold presence that hovered on the periphery of her senses.

An opening like a giant cave soon loomed in front of her, but as the red fog thinned Leia realized it wasn’t a cave. It was an entrance to rival any Alderaanian castle with its impressively high roof and its columns carved into female figures, though now not a single column stood intact. Most pieces of carved column lay scattered in rubble just like the droids by her ship. In the middle of that entrance of ruins, dwarfed even by the debris, stood a dark-swathed figure.

“Maul,” Leia greeted. Even under that hood she could still feel his familiar signature in the Force, not quite as chilling as the red atmosphere around her which may or may not’ve been sentient.

“Princess.” He looked her up and down as he stood a good head taller than her. Last time she saw him, he’d stood much taller. “You aren’t a ghost that belongs here, among those that haunt me.”

Her fog-sentience theory might’ve been more likely than she first thought.

“I’m not a ghost at all. But I take it you’ve heard about Alderaan?”

Maul cocked his head. “Is that why you’ve come, to personally deliver news that’s been ricocheting across the galaxy in some form of elaboration or another?”

“Not exactly. I sought you out because I know you’re powerful in the Force, and we need that right now.”

“We?”

“I’m part of the rebellion now—formally.”

“It’s power you need? You could’ve been just as powerful yourself if your father hadn’t made you give up your training.” His orange eyes blazed under his hood. It had been nearly five years since Bail had sent Maul away from Alderaan; apparently it still stung.

“Training like that wasn’t for me,” Leia said. It couldn’t have been when it slipped so easily from her routine once it was over. “Give me a blaster any day.”

From the belt under his outer robe, Maul withdrew a lightsaber and handed it to her. The hilt was jagged and broken like the rest of the landscape. She’d forgotten how heavy they were.

Leia had been ten when she met this red and black Dathomirian who was to assess her for Force sensitivity. At the time she couldn’t understand why everyone else acted so afraid of him, or why she could only be in Maul’s presence when flanked by the royal guard. Later—well after her father had dismissed Maul—she learned that Maul had been plucked from prison, having landed there for overthrowing the government on Mandalore. He’d agreed to train Leia in the ways of the Force in exchange for a full pardon.

But over the next five years as his student, Leia turned in a direction Bail didn’t like, and the training stopped. Maul was banished from Alderaan, leaving Leia with little incentive to continue training when all her other responsibilities as a princess were leading toward a position in the Imperial Senate.

Leia let the hilt roll around her hand in the signature twirl Maul had taught her all those years ago.

“If you ever come across a lightsaber that can hit people from 30 meters away, I’ll be interested,” she said. Maul took the lightsaber back, ignited it, and flung it out into the redness of Dathomir. It spun in a wide arc, slashing branches off the nearest trees and slicing through a nearby free-standing statue, before returning to Maul’s outstretched hand. The smugness on his face was fair, but still unnecessary.

“Okay, you never taught me that.”

“Your father forbade anything beyond the basics.” He hooked the lightsaber on his belt.

“That’s why I’ve come looking for you, because we need your proficiency.”

“Conspicuously once your father can have no say in the matter.”

Leia sucked in a breath. She had valiantly resisted succumbing to emotion triggered by Alderaan when in the company of others, but that still felt like a stab to the heart. “The reason he’s dead—the reason my entire planet is gone—brought me here. The Empire must be stopped. We have one Force user in the rebellion, but we could do so much more with—”

“Who?” demanded Maul, suddenly all attention.

“Luke Skywalker.” Leia couldn’t tell if there was a faint glow of recognition in his eyes or if that was just the pervasive red of their surroundings. “He learned from Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Maul nearly doubled over with a wheeze.

“What’s wrong?” gasped Leia. Maul wobbled over to the nearest fallen column and sat down, head in his hands. Anything from malfunctioning prosthetics to heart attack flashed through her mind, and she hovered over him, ready to help.

“Just the longest-running headache in the history of perpetual headaches,” he grumbled. Leia would’ve been annoyed at his dramatics—which were possibly even dialed up since she last saw him—if she wasn’t so busy sighing with relief. She circled behind Maul and pulled back his hood. His horns looked thicker now, and she let her fingers slide between them, tracing the patterns along his red and black skin, feeling the shift in Maul’s emotions—in the very air around them.

“I remember I gave you headaches, too,” Leia said. Her motions stayed slow. “And I saw you do this on several occasions when you were frustrated.” Her fingertips trailed down to circle the horns nearest his temples. Maul sat straighter, head tipping back.

“You were quick to learn,” he said. “I was frustrated that I was forced to train you to hide your sensitivity rather than embrace it.”

Leia’s fingers drifted upwards to circle more of his horns, and Maul’s head leaned into it. He was calming, she was sure of it.

“But I see you haven’t discarded everything I taught you. Your command over hiding your own Force signature has improved. I’m impressed.”

Leia smiled. She’d done it for so long, it was second nature to her anymore. The only times she had consciously thought about it were when she visited the Imperial Senate. “As in: yes, of course, I’d love to come with you and assist the rebellion?”

Maul turned to face her, breaking her massage. “As in: I could train you again—teach you everything I couldn’t before. I know your potential, Leia; you could certainly rival this Skywalker.”

Maul had always been ambitious, and even back then, he’d sworn Leia was a Force-sensitive prodigy. She’d always assumed he was just trying to give her a complex. “Does this mean your headache’s gone?”

“That’ll take a day or two,” he grumbled.

“Perfect, just in time for us to rejoin the rebellion,” Leia said, taking his hand and pulling him toward the red world outside.

They made it two steps across the not-quite-marshy ground before Maul pulled her back. “If you already have Kenobi, you don’t need me.”

“I guess I should’ve led with this: he’s dead,” Leia intoned. Maul blinked, and for a good moment he actually looked lost. Leia resting a hand on his arm brought him back to the present.

Finding Maul had been such a long shot. When she started out on this search, Leia didn't know if he was still alive or not, but now that she knew he was, she didn't want to leave the planet without him. Her hand on his arm tightened into a fist. “I know you weren’t sent away under the best circumstances, and I’m sorry about that. But you’re now the only person I know who’s trained in the Force and—” She’d gotten through so many more emotional conversations, why was her throat getting tight now? “You’re the last connection I have to Alderaan.”

Maybe Maul initiated, with a hand on the back of her neck, or maybe she did with her fist bunched in the rough material of his robes, but the next thing Leia knew, they folded into the kind of hug she needed. A hug of familiarity, where she could bury her face deep in the warmth of a strong embrace that held on for as long as she did. Leia had cried so much since the destruction of her planet—she had no tears now. She just needed the comfort and the release, to revel in the feeling of their emotions melding into one thrumming pulse.

Leia didn’t know how long they stayed like this, but when she pulled away, Maul was watching her with an understanding. He knew—to a greater degree than most others who had tried to comfort her—what she was going through.

“I’ve found that devastation leads to the greatest influx of power with all those emotions—”

“If you’re not coming with me, you don’t get to give me any Force tips,” Leia said with a laugh. “Now you can either stay here and put up with your ghosts, or come with me and put up with the rebellion. What’ll haunt you less?”

“I expect no difference. I won't help your rebellion, and I won't help your Skywalker. If I go with you, I expect to finish your training.”

“So basically I’m recruiting myself, great,” Leia said. Maybe Maul pulled her closer, or maybe it was Leia approaching all on her own, but a moment later they were the same proximity as when they’d hugged. “Teach me that lightsaber throw and I'm open for anything. How’s the headache now?”

“What headache?”


End file.
